Multicomponent seismic has been around for more than 30 years but is still struggling to gain widespread acceptance. Although the benefits of shear-wave exploration are countless, only imaging through gas clouds is regularly implemented—a significant niche perhaps, but a niche nevertheless.

We believe that the main obstacle delaying the routine use of multicomponent exploration is not the cost but the lack of interpretation tools. Our reasoning is that because shear information cannot be easily integrated into the normal interpretation workflow, it is seldom used. This is the factor that renders the extra cost prohibitive.